On AJR

Borchardt and Mroczek: “This forum celebrates a distinguished scholar’s career the way a traditional Festschrift might, but we mean it to be a different kind of tribute. The Festschrift genre is well-worn: a thick volume or two, published by a European press, with long essays (of sometimes stale scholarship) by everyone who has ever known the honoree. Contributions from senior scholars give such volumes authority, but they rarely become widely read, partly because their prohibitive cost usually makes them affordable only to libraries. Our alternative Festschrift takes the opposite approach. It deliberately highlights the work of junior scholars, from graduate students to those who have earned their PhDs in the last 5-7 years. It contains only short essays, not full-length technical articles. And it is free and accessible online to anyone. We are particularly proud that it has found a home on Ancient Jew Review, a website started and run by graduate students who have fostered unexpected collaborations, amplified new voices, and breathed life into our field. These features of our “alternative Festschrift” align exactly with the things we appreciate about Ben as a scholar.”